Jury Instructions for the Modern Age As courts have become increasingly aware—and wary—of jurors using social media and other Internet tools to communicate to or from the courthouse or do research into cases during trial or deliberations, several jurisdictions have adopted or proposed model jury instructions which explicitly tell jurors not to access information about cases on the Internet, or discuss the case on the Internet or social media.22 These instructions, based in large part on previous instructions that admonished jurors not to speak to others about a case, and to avoid newspaper, television, and radio coverage, attempt to cover a wide variety of juror use of the Internet. This may take several forms, including jurors conducting independent research on the case on the Internet; sending e-mails, text messages, tweets or other communication conveying developments in a trial or deliberations; or using the camera or audio features of mobile technology to record courtroom proceedings. Some courts have also dealt with cases in which jurors have used the Internet or social media during trial, and have had to determine the impact and remedy for such use.
Overview of Current Instructions This article reviews available civil and criminal jury instructions23 – including official and non-official compilations, as well as statutes or court rules imposing instructions – for the federal24 and state courts, and the local courts in the District of Columbia.25 Among the federal courts, six circuits have not compiled civil jury instructions26 and three have not compiled criminal instructions,27 although the U.S. Judicial Conference has formulated an instruction for civil and criminal cases in all federal courts. All states have compiled civil instructions, and all but three have compiled criminal instructions.28 Of the jurisdictions with instructions, two federal circuits and 21 states have “archaic” civil instructions, meaning that they either do not have any language regarding juror access to the media and discussions about cases, have only general language on the issue, or have language that only mentions traditional media (newspapers, radio, and television). In criminal instructions, five federal circuits have such archaic instructions, as do 13 states. Five federal circuits have “modern” civil instructions that either mention the Internet generally, mention both the Internet and social media, or mention specific web and social media sites and services. Seventeen states also have such modern civil instructions. On the criminal side, four federal circuits have modern instructions, while three have archaic ones. Among the states, 12 have archaic instructions, while 34 have updated their criminal instructions to account for the modern media landscape. 22. Even when adopted by a court, “pattern instructions are merely helpful suggestions to assist the practitioner and the trial court in formulating instructions and are not necessarily binding on the trial court nor automatically approved for its use. Nevertheless, some pattern instructions have been specifically approved.” 1 Fed. Jury Prac. & Instr. § 7:2 (6th ed. updated 2011). 23. Jury instructions were collected from a variety of sources, incouding Weslaw,; Lexis; Internet resources; published resources in the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the Boyd School of Law; the Pence Law Library at the American University Washington College of Law; and the Library of Congress; and court public information officers at individual courts. 24. Some federal district courts have compiled their own sets of instructions. These are not analyzed in this article. 25. In the remainder of this article, the District of Columbia’s local courts will be counted among state courts. 26. These are the First, Second, Fourth, Sixth, Tenth, and District of Columbia Circuits. 27. These are the Second, Fourth, and District of Columbia Circuits.. 28. The three states without any sort of criminal instructions are Alabama, Delaware, and Rhode Island.
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Volume 1, Issue 3